Update log
Full Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era update
The complete published notes, normalized for clean reading and source attribution.
Extracted changes
- Gameplay
- Maps
- UI and audio
- Balance
Hail, travelers! Back during Halloween 2024 we decided to showcase Necropolis as our very first faction reveal. However, we have received a lot of feedback from you since then and updated everyone's favourite necromancer town quite extensively. Come join us and ride out into the night with the new Dread Knights, fortify your new and improved Necropolis, and enjoy the chants of the dead in the background!
Additionally, we would like to share a few words from our Lead Game Designer Leonid about New Necromancy:
I see an active discussion regarding the rules of working of the new necromancy, and I would like to clarify a few points:
Why did you rework necromancy? You could've just tweaked its numbers, and it'd be in a good spot. Unfortunately not. Just tweaking the numbers can't fix Necromancy's core issues. We can't nerf its stats enough to stop it from becoming a broken, unstoppable late-game powerhouse (as seen in the demo), without also making it the weakest starting option. It's a fundamental necromancy design problem. For this reason, we decided to rework core mechanic of necromancy.
So how does it work now? As before, you need to defeat the enemy on the global map. However, the strongest enemy stack now selects as the sacrifice for the necromancy process - you can always see its model on the global map. Your undead units of the same tier will increase their numbers after battle, depending on the size of this (strongest) enemy stack, the power of your necromancy, and your reserve of necro energy (which prevents you from gaining undead in unlimited quantities). If you don't have undead of the same tier as the enemy's strongest stack, you will instead restore necro energy, which will be spent later to raise undead after future battles.
What's this new spell that lets me disable undead resurrection? We added this option following our closed testing, as players wanted better control over when they could resurrect units and when they could not. With this spell, you can make your hero restore necro energy even if you have undead units in your army of the same tier as the enemy you've defeated. In other words, the game behaves as if you don't have such units.
I would like to clarify why a spell is used rather than some other kind of toggle. There's no technical difficulty in adding a dedicated button that could be quickly pressed to activate or deactivate necromancy. However, such a UX element would be too unique within the game (nothing similar is used anywhere else), which could cause confusion for new players. Therefore, this functionality is implemented through an element familiar to all players in the series - the spell system. During early access, we will check player reactions to this UX and, if necessary, rework this aspect. However, after immediate feedback we've received, we will also add a toggle button in the UI next to hero portraits.
Why so difficult? Why not just use a undead selection window like in Heroes 5? In the gaming industry, there's a concept called gameflow. It's an essential aspect of gameplay that ensures nothing hinders the player's immersion, doesn't pull them out of the experience, and so on. When developing a game, it's necessary to find the right balance of many elements so that players can enjoy the gameplay.
Adding an extra window that appears for the player after every battle, forcing them to make a decision, could, in our estimation, frustrate the player, disrupt gameflow and negatively impact the overall game experience.
In summary, the changes you've learned about today have allowed us to achieve the following results:
We now have the options to balance necromancy at all stages of the game. We have saved the option to resurrect undead of any tier (including tier8, why not), which is very important to us.
The player's gameflow remains intact and dynamic.
The necromancy process itself has become clearer and more easy, as because it now depends on the enemy's numbers, not their total health.
In our testing, the new necromancy has proven quite interesting: players are forced to think more strategically, planning routes on the global map in a specific way (for example, visiting point #1 and point #2 to restore energy, and only then point #3 to use it). This makes gameplay for necromancers more unique.
Thank you for your feedback and stay tuned!
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